Coraleyes
by Woodswolf
Summary: Death is but the next great adventure... The sequel to Coralied. *Book-verse*
1. Prologue

_(A/N): Here's a little bit of background on how I got the idea for this series, period. I know, I know, this SHOULD be at the beginning of Coralied, but I don't care! STOP CRITICIZING ME! AAGH!_

_Anyway, here's the background of the series._

_The series started when I had ideas for two seperate scenes: one was where Coraline was facing off against the OM again and (**SPOILER, but you should have read Coralied already**) decides to give herself up to save someone else (**END SPOILER**). Yes, yes, you know where I got that from, shut up._

_The second scene was almost the basis for a crossover: a (dead) wolf was talking to a** (SPOILER! YOU HAVEN'T READ THIS YET!)** dead, escaped-from-the-Other-World protagonist and goes back on a quest (arranged by a god of death - duh XD) to save her and make her 'free' again (**END SPOILER**)._

_Originally, the second scene was supposed to be an AU take on Coraline where she lost. But, eventually, I figured out a way to string them together to make it a trilogy. Then it was just a matter of picking out titles. You probably understand my title scheme by now._

_So, here is the strung-together final volume (unless if I get extreme demand for a sequel, or an insert this X right here in the timeline kind of story)! Enjoy reading!_

PROLOGUE: LIFE SUCKS

Life sucks. Too bad. You can't do much about it while you're in it, and afterwards, you can't do anything at all.

Who am I, you may ask?

Well, I was hoping you knew that. That's just great.

Anyway, if you think your life sucks, think about this: I fell in love, and then died a miserable death - very slowly. Torture. A sea of pain is all I can remember. And then finding the shore.

The Other Shore. The Shore of Death. Just the shoreline, however; it wasn't for years that I ventured inland.

I didn't get to tell him I loved him.

I didn't even get a last word.

If you can tell me with a straight face that your life sucks worse than that, I've heard of you. Not that I know much on the subject, anymore.

Not that I know who I am.

Maybe you do know who I am. Have I not told you enough?

I shall tell my tale.

No, not from the beginning. You may know me soon enough.

I don't know how much time it was, that I was locked in the Empty Spaces. Fifty years, maybe? One hundred?

My memories are easier to remember as... metaphors, now. Similies. Beautiful, distant landscapes that I hope never to visit, for some, and never to find, for others.

So I will never know how long it was. Not that it matters. It's one of the places I hope not to visit. I had many years to think over my mistakes...

I don't want to do that again. I didn't then, either.

But I made more mistakes. Thinking that nothing was worse that what I was in, I gambled part of my soul away in exchange for freedom.

It was the worst mistake I ever made.

But it was made. I cannot change it.

Sure, being free from that is great - but I'm Lost. I'm Lost in a Dark Place that I do not know.

But then he came.

And I saw freedom.

_(A/N): A glint of hope at the end? Is this real? HAVE I GONE INSANE?_

_Don't worry, it will be crushed and completely explained by the end of the story. Mwa ha ha!_

_Maybe there will be a happy ending for you people._

_Maybe._

_If I **FEEL** like it._

_And I do, cuz I don't want to and I'm too lazy to re-write half the book. XD  
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	2. Screams and Nightmares

_(A/N): Well, let's get going, and start this depressing thing!_

_Random Development Fact: One of the lines in here was inspired by a T-shirt on an episode of MAD (technically I only realized it now... but whatever. Let me pretend to be extremely awesome). The episode is called "Extreme Makeover: Pirate Edition" (I think... I can't find it on Cartoon Network's website! :( Oh well...)_

BOOK ONE: THE LONG DEAD

CHAPTER ONE: SCREAMS AND NIGHTMARES

Screams echo through the Dark, rising in pitch, then falling. Each is a bit different, unique. It _belongs_ to someone.

I'm Lost in the dark world I've been damned to. That we've been damned to, in fact. It's the Land of the Lost, those who... had _complications_, something that prevented them from going to the places of Eternal Happiness or Eternal Pain.

Usually, it's those of us who died miserable deaths.

I'm included. I'm Lost.

The Land of the Lost isn't a happy place; it's Dark. You can't see a thing. There are very evil things lurking in the Darkness, things that kill souls.

There are also the Others. The Others who have been Lost.

Lost souls tend to find each other.

I'm still not sure if that's a good thing.

As I was randomly following this maze, I found a Light: A small sphere, roughly the size of a pebble. But it was bright, and moving away.

I followed it, even though I knew what it was. They were not to be trusted. They were enslaved spirits that led others to traps.

But then I saw the Shack. It was where the screams were coming from. I could barely see it in the Darkness, but the Light showed me a small bit of wood. The screams were very loud here.

The Light moved away. I saw dim light inside now... not as bright as the Light's. More like death-candles. It was the brightest natural light source here, but still not bright enough to see by.

Not bright enough to escape by.

I went into the Shack. The door opened, slowly and silently. Then I saw the source of the screaming.

It was a girl. Very young, as far as I could tell. Most of the Lost were very old... some were even older than they had been when they died.

She was very young. She looked like she was around ten, maybe eleven years old.

I could not trust her.

You see, in the Land of the Lost, you learn quickly or die.

One of the things you learn is not to trust the extremes.

_Do not trust the Lights in Dark._

_Do not trust the Darker than Dark._

_Do not trust the Eldest._

_Do not trust the Youngest._

_Only trust in the light of death-candles_

_And they who turn horror into beauty._

That's the verse that popped into my head, randomly. There's a long Poem that you memorize when you come here, to the Land of the Lost; you have as much time as you like to memorize it. Some of the verses rhyme and are easier to remember; some aren't. But you must keep it with you forever or die.

It isn't a pretty Poem.

The girl was sitting at the Soul-keys; an instrument shaped like a piano, slightly, with three times as many keys. Every time you pressed a key, a blood-curdling scream of one of the Lost would erupt. It was amazing the way it worked. It organized them by pitch.

I wondered where mine was.

I wondered where hers was.

I wasn't sure I wanted to know.

But I listened for a bit; it was an enchanting tune she was playing. The screams themselves were the words. I knew they were saying something to her that I would never understand.

It was a song I knew from long ago that I could not name; yet, at the same time, I knew I was hearing it for the first time.

It was sad, a minor key. But it was strong. It was living. The song itself had life force; I could feel it grow and change and recede and die with each passing measure. I could feel the world simplifying, fading around me, so that it was just me and her, lit by the light of the death-candles.

I knew I would never hear this beauty again. I knew soon she would fade like a dream in life; she was a memory from a distant past that I could barely remember. I willed her to snap out of existence, stop the music. She did not.

So she might be real.

There was only one way to know.

I took a step with a bare foot, towards her.

Then another.

A third.

A floorboard squeaked.

The music cut off.

The girl turned around.

And I was scarred for existence.

_(A/N): I had another stupid look on my face just now. Why is it that I always have stupid looks on my faces RIGHT BEFORE I write the A/N? 'Cuz then it's all I write about. :(_

_I'm going to get another stupid look if I say what I was going to say._

_I'll say it anyway._

_No, I'm going to get a stupid look on my face. And you're probably already asking yourselves the question I was going to ask you, which is really stupid 'cuz only I can answer it. Forget it._

_Move on with your lives, my moment of control over your minds is over for now._

_And if it's not... buy me a Minecraft activation code while you're still mindlocked._

_I write LONG A/Ns, don't I? XD_


	3. Stitches on a Soul

_(A/N): Crap. I've only got five minutes to write an A/N._

_Here's a theory I came up with a while ago:_

_The last person alive will be the first to die, because if they're the last person alive, there's no one to die before them._

_Gives you happy feelings, doesn't it?_

CHAPTER TWO: STITCHES ON A SOUL

She wasn't even human.

A doll, given a form substantial enough to move on her own.

A doll, given a mind good enough to see patterns and evoke and create emotion and beauty out of all those godforsaken screams...

I thought again of the poem.

She wasn't young; she wasn't the youngest, either.

She was an old soul, trapped in something she did not want.

She was sad and old and filled with regret, tortured day and night by the world.

She had found the Shack to escape. To find a happy place that no longer existed for her.

I didn't feel sorry.

I felt _guilty_.

I did not know how I could tell these emotions were there, these thoughts. Souls couldn't cry. And she didn't have eyes. Nothing to cry with.

Then I saw the statue. It was sitting on top of the Soul-keys.

The Guardian of the Dead. That was how I could feel this. Those he watched could feel each others' pains and joys.

They could also speak to each other by thoughts.

_I know. I should have stayed locked up for eternity._

I already knew where the voice came from.

_Who are you? Why is your past so awful?_ I thought to her.

_It's a story too long to tell. Flee while you can. Forget you ever saw me. Let your soul live a little longer. Find a place of rest, and leave me to my misery._

_No._

_Go._

_No. I want to know._

_Please._

I was jerked out of our thought conversation by what I saw. There was a pleading look in her eyes-that-were-not-eyes. It was a sad look, and it held my gaze for a long time.

Then I noticed something.

She was not moaning or groaning or sighing for one reason, and she had not been screaming with her music for the same reason.

Her mouth was sewn shut.

A doll. No more. That was all she was.

_I'm talking to a doll._

_I already told you. It's a long story that I don't want to tell. I don't want to go back to those shores - those landscapes of memories. Leave me alone to get lost in my music. Leave me alone to rot in eternity on this bench. Leave me alone so that I cannot remember, and may not forget._

I did not know how to respond.

She turned around again, but did not play. All was silent for a little while. Then I spoke – well, mind-spoke, anyway.

_What happened to you?_ I asked her.

_A lot, _she said. She was still facing the Soul-keys.

_How did you die? _I asked.

_How did _you_ die?_

I paused, carefully. She kept turning the questions back to me. But I answered.

_Suicide when I was 23._

She paused. I could tell she was thinking.

_I don't remember much, _she admitted. _A sea of pain. I was afloat in it, on an old wooden boat that was being consumed by black fire. I was being burned by it. No matter how much of the sea splashed on the fire, however, it would not go out. Then the boat was gone, and I was drowning in the sea. And then… I think that's when I died._

I could tell she would have sighed, had her lips been able to move. She turned away from the Soul-keys again, and faced me.

_Why did you waste your life?_

I knew the dead could not cry. She could, and I knew not how. There were tears streaming down her face. They flew straight through the floor of the Shack.

They left no hole.

It was pure remorse, I knew then. Pure regret.

Pure pain.

She was a very old soul.

_Why? _she asked again.

_I don't know._

More silence. I broke it, yet again.

_Your story was a metaphor._

Silence, again.

_Yes, _she answered.

_Why? _I asked.

Silence.

_It's less painful that way._

_(A/N): The world sucks really bad. Get used to it.  
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	4. Ratios

_(A/N): Hehehe, I've decided to cheat. Two in one day! Yay for you! Maybe three in one... o.o  
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_This is the first chapter where I rip off - sorry, give extreme honor to - a story without stating where I got the quote from._

_If you're reading this, and you know that this is book-verse, then you know where I got the quote and which one it is. Probably._

_Second line. Yeah, right there. Hehehe..._

_Continue on! Ignore me, while I go and sit over here and watch you while you read, with a very Cheshire Cat-esque grin on my face. And laugh, because you don't know what happens yet._

_I am a cruel, cruel mistress. Get used to it._

CHAPTER THREE: RATIOS

_Let me help you, _I told her. _We… we could be friends._

_We COULD be rare specimens of an exotic breed of African dancing elephants, but we're not. At least, I'M not._

I could hear in the way she said it a sad smile, as if she were remembering a happy memory from sad times. A quote from the distant past, something that was shrouded behind mists of forgetting.

She was a very old soul.

_Let me help you, _I said again.

_It will do no good. Pain and torture and forgetfulness are all that you will receive._

I gestured towards the statue on top of the Soul-keys.

_I think he might have a different opinion._

_No matter what the Guardian thinks. I'm beyond help. You're getting yourself mixed up in things that are far bigger than you would have guessed upon first glance._

_I understand what I'm getting into, from what I can see right now, _I told her. I knew a horrible thing had happened to her, from her story and her face.

_You'd have to do something extreme in order to help me. And while you were doing that extreme thing, you would have to do another extreme thing._

_I made it out. _One_ time, _she continued. _I was part of a three-to-one ratio of defeated vs. survived. I had survived, but ended up as part of another ratio: four-to-zero ratio of emotional-breakdown-after-experience vs. no effects. Plus a three-to-one ratio of going to Eternal Happiness vs. ending up here._

_That's a lot of ratios, _I said. I couldn't think of what else to say.

_It's not worth it. If you bother helping me you're going to end up like me. Or stuck with similar memories to mine. And they aren't pretty, I can tell you._

_Let me get back to my music. Please,_ she begged.

I walked over to the Soul-keys, where she was sitting. Where she had been sitting, this whole time. She turned to face me again.

_Let's debate,_ I said.

I touched the forehead of the statue.

Because there was another curious thing about them.

_(A/N): I love math. And I wrote this. And I'm still confused a bit by all those ratios. XD_


	5. Flight from Death

_(A/N): Now we're getting to the action! If we weren't to the action already, that is. Don't worry, it gets a LOT more violent later. XD_

_Random Developmental Fact: A modification of this whole first book (yes, this is the end of the first book/part, whatever you want to call it) was the scene that inspired Coraleyes. It's with the dead wolf scenario we talked about earlier (see the Prologue's A/N - it's not really a spoiler anymore). But it had some interesting enhancements that made it strange, such as (THIS IS A BIT OF A SPOILER FOR THIS CHAPTER, READ AT YOUR OWN RISK):_

_The 'god of death' was there the whole time._

_It was some sort of 'private chat' kind of thing that the dead wolf was having with the god, and eventually he opened the protagonist's side of the conversation so that they could chat with each other directly._

_The Land of the Lost didn't exist. Instead, the wolf (along with all of the other dead souls) was in a harness pulling Death's chariot towards Paradise. Everyone reached it at a different time, depending on how long they were there, and once they were there, they 'disappeared' from the harnesses that were holding them._

_Along with a few other things. I think I'm going to have to put them in the A/Ns for the Epilogue, because its current standing (with title and THE END at the end) is 42 words._

_Yes, yes, it will make sense eventually. Just... blah. Read on!_

CHAPTER FOUR: FLIGHT FROM DEATH

The statue began to shake.

It was working. He would be here any moment.

And then he appeared, behind us, in the shack.

The Guardian of the Dead.

He was also the one that 'deals' could be made with.

The deals could sometimes get you a place in Eternal Happiness, or Eternal Pain.

But sometimes, they could not. Sometimes they left you worse off than you would have been.

It depended on how you acted.

It was another part of the Poem which was called to my mind:

_If you seek to live again, a Deal you must strike._

_And if you succeed in your quest's goal under the cloak of night,_

_Then you could be moved up or down, or you could stay the same,_

_But you may, from that short, short life, remember just one name._

The Poem isn't exactly the happiest thing, as you probably guessed.

I thought, when I first came there, that I'd strike a deal and go back and find my own name, since no one knows theirs.

But I realized now that I should go and look for hers.

No doubt it was going to be harder to find...

...but it felt right to me.

So I spoke to the Guardian of the Dead. Or, thought-spoke, anyway.

_I seek to help this girl. I think I know what will happen but I desire to do so anyway._

_Bravery is no good once the battle is over, _the Guardian said._ It means that you're more likely to make decisions you regret. Bad decisions._

The girl flinched. She wasn't looking at him to begin with, and I had a feeling that if she turned around, he would have had a look of extreme disappointment on his face, as I caught it in his tone, as well: _You should know. Right?_

I imagined the last _Right? _with a fake smile on his face and said in a very sarcastic tone; however, the Guardian's face remained expressionless and blank throughout the conversation.

The girl did not speak throughout the entire proceedings. She either was extremely out of it, or feared the Guardian with a strength that was powerful enough to make her extremely out of it. I couldn't tell.

But we arranged the Deal: I was to go into the world, and with her guidance, she would show me to the lair of the monster that had altered her soul and I would defeat it... or try to.

And when it was finished, he left. He disappeared, but before he did so he told me that I would have five minutes (whatever that was - time was irrelevant here) before I would leave.

During that time - however much time it was - I spoke with the girl.

_I don't want to go, _she said. She reminded me of a small child, the way she said it. _It will cause me pain. Too much pain. The Empty Places wait. They wait for me, wait for me to come back and give up more of myself to escape again. They wait, and they watch, and they know, and I fear them, because I know they will get me._

_But I see something in you. Maybe you can save me. But I know not. Everything is hidden from me. I can't see anything. I'm blind. A blind soul can't see the light._

_They may be trivial things, but a soul is too crippled without them. I need them. She is out there, waiting, keeping them safe and sound and knowing of failure, on whose part I cannot tell._

_But I need to see. I'm blind. I cannot see. I'm blinded by darkness and failure and hate and sick, twisted love._

_You'll have to find my eyes._

And then we were gone.

_(A/N): End of book one!_

_That was a quite short conclusion to the first part, eh?_

_Surprisingly, it's the **exact inverse** of the ratio of number-of-chapters-in-book-one to number-of-chapters-in-book-two in Coralied. Coralied was 6-4. Coraleyes is 4-6._

_Interesting, eh?_

_Plus, for those of you Harry Potter fans out there, translate Voldemort's name from French to English. Like this: Vol de Mort._

_Hehehe..._


	6. Spirit in the Snow

_(A/N): This was another part of the original mind-roleplay-draft I had with myself (don't ask... ideas strike me in random places and I have roleplays with myself over them... just don't ask...). Swirling snow, none of the rest of the stuff really._

_Enjoy!_

BOOK TWO: THE BEGINNING OF THE END

CHAPTER FIVE: SPIRIT IN THE SNOW

The first thing I noticed was that it was cold.

Extremely, unbearably cold.

With joy, I realized I was alive again.

And then I remembered that I was alive again, and that I needed warmth.

I sat up, slowly. I was a bit dizzy.

I didn't have any warm clothing on. Just old jeans and a T-shirt.

I recognized them. The clothes I'd commited suicide in.

I stood up. I knew where I had to go.

I followed a child's footprints.

It was quite strange to know that I was dead. I thought about it as I followed them. I confused myself.

Eventually I reached another small clearing. The wind blew, and I saw a person, briefly captured, an image in the blizzard.

Then I was unconscious.

_Sorry, _the girl said. The girl I'd volunteered to save.

I couldn't think of a way to respond. I wasn't sure if I had been knocked unconscious by the girl, or that I'd dropped dead from the freezing temperatures.

_I just want to explain a few things, _she said. I_ already know more about how this Deal is going to end. While you were talking to the Guardian, I was having a conversation with him as well, at the same time._

I was confused.

_He works the same way the statues do,_ she continued. _Spirits can have multiple conversations, such as private ones with the statue itself. They say nothing. I found this when I entered the Shack. It stopped the memories... _she trailed off.

_I was having a private one with him. We were speaking about different things. I had asked about the outcome of this, and he said it was grim. He said it would be a happy ending for one, but not quite for the other two... I'm pretty sure you assumed I shuddered for a different reason._

_What will happen to us isn't the least bit happy. At least, from what I can tell._

_Since we're both dead, we can still speak to each other. And that explains this conversation._

She'd answered all the questions I'd had, but she'd brought up more of them.

And I had a feeling she wouldn't want to answer most of them.

_Let's try to finish this as fast as possible,_ I said.

_Eternity to think about your decisions isn't the least bit fun, _she said. _And that's where we're going._

_(A/N): I love depressing chapter endings!_

_Yay! It's another depressing chapter ending!_

_I know, this chapter was boring. Mainly a filler for more action later._

_Well, I was about to mention something that wouldn't be relevant for at least another two chapters. You'll hear it later :)  
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	7. Forbidden Return

_(A/N): Fail! Two in one day again.  
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_This was my least favorite chapter to write. Ever. Well, except for the majority of the first book of Coralied, because none of it made sense :(_

_Fail. Anyway, read on!_

CHAPTER SIX: FORBIDDEN RETURN

We continued traveling for about a week.

Slowly but surely, temperatures got warmer. Slightly.

She told me more about what I would have to do. Some important things. It caused her pain to dig up old memories. I could tell, even though she didn't say.

As the days passed, I realized (and my theory was confirmed by the girl) that I was invisible to people, and did not need food, water, shelter, or heat.

_It's because you're dead, _she said. _Only if you want to be noticed will you be noticed, even if you're in a body. It's all an illusion..._

She seemed sad and scared and angry when she said the last part.

Eventually, we found it. The house.

And we went in.

And I saw what she was leading me to.

It was open.

The place is uninhabited, she said. She knew we were coming.

I wasn't sure what to think at that.

Let's go, I said.

We traveled through the tunnel.

She was waiting.

And the girl disappeared.

_(A/N): Another short, filler-information chapter._

_So... sorry if I'm boring you. :(_

_The action starts next chapter. I promise XD_

_And if it doesn't, you have no appreciation for 'action'._

_Hehehe... dead stuff... hehehe... land mines... hehehe... more dead stuff..._


	8. Meet the Parent

_(A/N): My inbox is too quiet :( Here's #3 for today.  
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_And so, I'm going to make this short and sweet:_

_My personal world is a communist dictatorship._

_SO READ ON OR FACE THE ETERNAL WRATH OF ME!_

CHAPTER SEVEN: MEET THE PARENT

"Too scared to show your face, aren't you?"

That was the first thing the Beldam said when we had entered. Or I had, anyway. I could tell she was referring to the girl.

"I know what you're going to ask for," the Beldam continued. "You're going to ask for a chance to redeem her, and you're going to ask for your own style of game. She probably told you to explore for them.

"But that was a mistake. I was too excited, and still keeping up a bit of the 'perfect mother' charade. So now it's my turn to pick the game.

"And let's see? What game should I pick that gives me the largest advantage?

"Oh, I know what I've picked. But I'm not going to tell you. Why would I tell you when it would give me even more of an advantage if I didn't?"

She pointed across the room. I suddenly realized that it was a lot larger than I had thought.

"Down there. Do you see it? On the table? That's them. The parts of her soul that are mine... but could be hers again. If you go get them," she said. "And I'm not stopping you."

I knew something was wrong. I knew she wouldn't do it this easily.

I decided to test a theory, one that was quite interesting, and... quite likely.

I walked over to a nearby table, and picked up a little glass paperweight that was sitting next to a vase.

And very quickly, I threw it as hard as I could across the room.

It sailed through the air...

And touched the ground...

And there was an explosion.

_(A/N): Crap. There's only a bit of action at the end. NONE OF THIS STUFF IS ACTION!_

_If you like dialogue, this is your favorite chapter. There's pretty much no dialogue from here on out.  
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_If you like ACTION, on the other hand, this is the set-up for your favorite chapter._

_Hehehe... (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE! CURSE YOU!)  
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	9. Minesweeper

_(A/N): ACTION! YES! Forget lights and camera, I like ACTION._

_Shut up already. I need to say my piece._

_First thing: Remember the end of Coralied? The last chapter? Not the epilogue, the last chapter?_

_Remember what it was called? Remember what we focused on, but never saw touch the ground?_

_It touched the ground... and stayed there, hidden... waiting..._

_Second thing: This isn't the ultimate climax. This is just suspense action, mainly. The next chapter is ACTION action._

_...which is also published today for your convenience XD  
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CHAPTER EIGHT: MINESWEEPER

I knew she had been standing just a bit too close to where we had been.

Just a bit too close.

And the fact that they were in plain sight only helped my theory.

And that just made this whole thing a lot harder.

It's like Minesweeper... that game that I used to play at the public library in my town. If you click a mine, you die.

Here, I have to work through a Minesweeper maze where the walls are made of mines.

Even better, there's probably no little numbers on the floor that give me a clue on where to step.

This is going to be hard.

_The only way to win is to cheat._

I knew it was her... the girl. She'd figured out some way to mess with this whole thing.

_Yeah, but how? _I thought back.

_Like this._

Very slowly, a small splatter formed, like a drop of blood fell on the carpet.

I saw the carpet around it begin to turn the same shade of crimson, as if it was a large open wound which was bleeding profusely, or a bottle of wine that cracked open and was spilling its contents everywhere.

I decided to think of it as a wine spill, because I had a feeling about the other one that wasn't exactly pleasant.

Slowly the... wine stains... expanded to take over the entire floor, except for a narrow path that wasn't the least bit straight.

_I've marked the trail for you, _the girl continued. Her voice sounded very weak, as if it was eating all of her life-force just to talk to me. _Just act natural and hope she doesn't detect it... I've cheated once, and she doesn't want me cheating again..._

With that, she was gone again, and it was just me. Just me, one person, really considering that this wasn't the best idea after all. Because from what I could tell, I was already killing her.

I just slowly followed the path across the room, occasionally faking a step onto one of the blood-red areas. It wasn't helping to think of blood, again.

It just made me think more along the lines of every-second-I-waste-here-is-a-higher-chance-that-she's-already-dead.

Finally I reached the end. The Beldam was watching me, curious and angry, although she hid it well.

No matter how much she didn't like it, eyes of any kind can still convey emotion.

I move on, I see what there is to see. I see them, I know that they're there, and so I get them all, and I carry them. Fragments of a distant past, a past she could have had...

I think of the sad girl, and think that maybe, once, she wasn't like this... maybe she was a sad, innocent kid who found this hell and escaped, only to come back of her own accord later.

Much later.

I needed to win this. But I knew I wouldn't. From what she'd told me, the Beldam would cheat using whatever method she found necessary.

I hoped she hadn't found any method, but I knew she had.

When I got to the end, she grinned in a sick, 'congratulating' way. Congratulating herself, that is.

"It's probably more than just her, I'm guessing."

"Oh, yes. No one likes to be the first, no one likes to be alone, waiting for insanity in the dark. And the one that was the first... she wasn't human, anyway," she laughed.

Failure isn't an option. I had to get around her.

"But, oh! I think you've cheated. No, I _know_ you've cheated. So, how about we play another game?"

"What game?" I asked, pretending to be entertained by her.

"Let's see... it rhymes with _For Seth_," she said, smugly.

Suddenly the whole floor explodes.

_(A/N): Well, call me Bob and give me a sombrero! Ain't that action if I've ever seen it!_

_Continue on, faithful reader, while I try to convince myself to become sane again._


	10. Death of Spirit

_(A/N): Well, here's the epic climax. HERE. IT. IS._

_So, now, I present the penultimate chapter to the penultimate writing (you know, the last chapter comes before the insanely-short epilogue) of this series! Yay!_

CHAPTER NINE: DEATH OF SPIRIT

As I saw all the mines flying through the air at me, I knew this was the end of it. Everything.

I was dead to begin with, so no doubt this would be _a whole lot worse _than dying.

I knew from what the girl had told me that the Beldam would make sure that it was your end, no matter what. That you would not only die, but your spirit would die, that everything would die, that there would only be dust and damp and forgetting...

So I calmed as I watched the last images I would ever see change and grow, with different things becoming larger while other things retreated...

Suddenly there were several hundred violent explosions that all happen in front of me, and yet somehow I am not harmed by any of them.

When I was fully alert, I realized what blocked them. And I realized what held one last one in her weak arms, and threw that one last unexploded mine straight into the Beldam's face...

...

This girl, the one I now watched over, was now able to talk, and she said something I couldn't quite understand, a strange word I didn't know. But I knew what it was.

And I would also realize that the girl, the one I'd tried to save, who was no more than a miserable, dead spirit, was dying without button eyes.

She was dying with freedom.

And as the world collapsed around us, I comforted her, and as we fell into the deep white mist, I watched as she slowly faded, and was gone.

And when I hit bottom, alone, I died.

_(A/N): From this point on, reality has no grip on me._

_Currently, I'm chatting with three-eyed purple-skinned aliens while flying through a water-world without drowning while eating moon-sushi with broccoli jelly._

_No, I'm not on drugs._

_Of course, I only said that sentence to make you think that I am on drugs. I love reverse psychology!_

_But, we will soon find the name of our protagonist, if you have not guessed what it is already!_


	11. A Name

_(A/N): Finally, the last two chapters! Here we are! Let's see how this story ends, shall we?_

CHAPTER TEN: A NAME

I awoke.

I was back in the Land of the Lost.

Back in the Shack.

Back in the dark.

She was not here.

She couldn't finish her song, her tale, her life.

The story's ending, of which I now knew.

So before I left, I finished it for her.

And then I was gone.

I would never return there.

Time passed.

I finally had made it out of there, out of the grand labyrinth that was the Land of the Lost.

I finally made it to the place of Eternal Happiness.

I had wandered out of the darkness and into the light.

How did I escape?

I followed a Light.

Why?

Because I knew it was her.

How?

Because I knew her name.

_Coraline._

_(A/N): If I was feeling an especially cruel mood, I would have changed it to Billy Bob Junior and been done with it. But then I would have gotten review-hate-mail. Maybe. Of course, twist endings are fun. It's REALLY entertaining to watch people go insane over them!_

_Well, now that we've met up with the protagonist in another form, let's see how things are looking from her perspective, eh? But, before that, there will be a ton of behind-the-scenes-inspiration stuff. Because I need a longer chapter. 42 words doesn't even count as a one-shot. I mean, seriously.  
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	12. A Poem

_(A/N): Here we are! The epilogue! The place where I pour my heart out into behind-the-scenes stuff, thank-yous, and other general information, because the actual story part of this is only 42 words._

_I think I'll add it to the end notes, though._

EPILOGUE: A POEM

_My name is just Coraline,_

_My sorrows are yours and mine,_

_My story is for all to see,_

_I am but a poem,_

_But everywhere is my home,_

_And I search for new worlds in your dreams._

THE END

_(A/N): Ain't that touching? Didn't end so bad after all :)_

_Anyway, let me tell you a few things about this story._

_First, a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff._

_Originally, Coralied and Coraleyes were supposed to be two separate stories, in two different alternate universes. Unfortunately, Coraleyes (which was not called that at the time... it was called something along the lines of 'wolf meets up with Coraline and they go save the universe' XD) had a plot that couldn't really stand up; it would have been a crossover with my own creation, which would have been strange, and... yes, in general, really weird. It couldn't stand up. There were too many loose ends._

_Then I realized the similarity: at the end of Coralied (which had a working title of something along the lines of 'Coraline dies in the end') she's dead, and at the beginning of Coraleyes, she's dead (and by the end, she's DOUBLE dead, as you probably guessed)._

_It's strange how my mind picked up on this little detail, and just this little detail._

_In the end, a nuclear apocalypse happened in 'wolf meets up with Coraline and they go save the universe's' world and the radioactive mass remaining formed into Coraleyes. And it had a few tweaks and edits along the way to 'blend' better with both Coraline and Coralied (all the little loose ends, details, other stuff... it's all been cleaned up. You saw an obvious example with the bloody tear, an element introduced in Coralied)._

_Originally, back in the days of Coraleyes' old plot, there was supposed to be another minor detail - Coraline was supposed to be trying to find her 'old friends' AKA the ghost children. Unfortunately for her, back in those days, she had no idea where they were to begin with (and Paradise was supposed to be infinitely massive)._

_Also (back to the modern world, with actual Coraleyes, for a little bit of my-canon background info) the ghost children ended up in Eternal Happiness when they were freed, while she struck the deal with the Beldam, and so, ended up in the Land of the Lost, unable to find her way to her friends, so she collapsed at the Soul-keys and remained there for... many years. There is no relevant timescale after Coralied, for time shows no effects on the dead. It only moves forward on Earth.  
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_Okay, now to move on to easter-eggs. Here are a few things you might want to... look at, or search for, within this text._

_The OC whose perspective we see from throughout Coraleyes... He is told his real name, he just doesn't recognize it. Hehehe...  
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_And, finally, down to the thank-yous._

_Wow, already up to 686 words? This is good! It's a decent-sized chapter with all these extra A/Ns!_

_I must thank several people for helping to keep me going this whole time:_

_**Marquis Carabas** for reviews, and all those other PM conversations they sparked_

_**Ilovefanfictionsomuch** for favoriting this_

_**My World** for allowing me to write this_

_And **Niel Gaiman**, whom, without him, this would not exist :)  
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